Ex-Future Farmers official charged in $1.7M misuse

Jun. 19—A former Future Farmers of America official is accused of opening a secret account with the organization's money and misspending $1.7 million, including on his and his wife's personal credit cards, while he worked in the state Education Department, the Arizona Auditor General said last week.

A state grand jury on May 31 indicted Tyler Grandil, 50, of Gilbert, on six felony counts related to computer tampering and fraudulent schemes that allegedly occurred during his last four years on his job , according to court documents. His trial is scheduled for Nov. 22.

Grandil, who became the FFA executive secretary in June 2000, declined to comment.

FFA is a nonprofit that prepares youth for agricultural careers and is one of six student organizations in the state department's Career and Technical Education program. Chapters exist at various schools throughout the East Valley.

Grandil's lawyer, Evan Tomkins, said in an email, "There is a lot we would like to say about Tyler Grandil, his integrity, and his devotion to Arizona Students. But we respect and want the legal process to run its course.

"For 15 years, Mr. Grandil selflessly served the students of Arizona through his leadership with the Arizona Chapter of the Future Farmers of America. His efforts led the FFA to reach new heights — more than doubling its membership, while orchestrating innovative funding mechanisms that continue to provide financial stability through this day. His devotion to Arizona agricultural education brought incredible learning experiences and opportunities to thousands of students.

"We have not spoken with or been informed of an Arizona FFA member or student who is anything but grateful for Mr. Grandil's selfless work. Regarding a 'secret' bank account, this account was an FFA bank account created with the FFA tax-identification number and the proceeds therein were used for FFA non-profit purposes."

Tomkin added, "Mr. Grandil emphatically denies any wrongdoing."

The Auditor General looked at financial transactions from March 2011 through December 2015, when Grandil was fired from the organization.

Investigators stated that in March 2011, without the knowledge of the FFA or the Education Department, Grandil opened a checking account under the name "Arizona Association FFA," and deposited $1.7 million in of the Future Farmers' money, which included student and chapter membership dues and conference registrations.

He designated himself as the sole signer.

The money instead should have been deposited in the education department's AZFFA checking account, according to the Auditor General.

Grandil's duties at the time involved leading the program's day-to-day operations and managing its finances.

"To help conceal his actions, Mr. Grandil altered 483 invoices in the department's accounting software, making it falsely appear AZFFA monies were not due to be deposited in the department checking account, and he instead deposited those monies in his secret 'Arizona Association FFA' checking account," the report said.

It added that Grandil's actions resulted in the monthly financial reports omitting these revenues and associated expenses.

The report also stated that Grandil failed to obtain his supervisors' approval for any of the $1.7 million in expenditures.

"Mr. Grandi admitted that he used five personal credit cards for both AZFFA and personal purposes, commingled AZFFA and personal monies for payments, and failed to keep a separate accounting that tracked AZFFA and personal purchase," according to the Auditor General.

"As a result, we were unable to determine how much of the ($1.6 million) Mr. Grandil spent from March 2011 to December 2015 toward paying the balances on his personal credit cards was for either AZFFA or personal purposes."

Grandil also is alleged to have used $41,000 from the secret account to pay his family members and himself. From May 2011 to August 2015, Grandil allegedly issued 18 checks totaling $29,500 from the account to his family members, their companies or their companies' credit card, the report stated.

Although the family members claimed that Grandil hired them to provide goods and services to AZFFA, they were unable to provide documentation to prove that, investigators said.

Also, from February 2012 to October 2015, Grandil wrote to himself 10 checks totaling $11,450. He claimed they were for reimbursements for a $10,000 loan he provided to AZFFA in 2010 to cover amounts he charged to his personal credit cards.

"Although Mr. Grandil did not provide documentation to support this loan, we found that in January 2011, Mr. Grandil and his wife used their personal monies to make a $10,000 payment on one of their personal credit cards," the report said.

"Nonetheless, it is still unclear if this payment was for a loan to AZFFA because... their credit card balances included both AZFFA and personal charges."

The report said that Grandil spent the remaining $68,240 for AZFFA and other purposes. From March 2011 to December 2015, he used $27,355 to pay for AZFFA disbursements such as conference and hotel expenses, $12,626 for bank charges and $1,081 for "likely personal purposes such as payments to a home warranty company and a telecommunication company."

The investigators faulted former education department officials for allowing Grandil to be the direct recipient of all AZFFA revenues, make deposits in the department's AZFFA checking account, record those deposits in the department's software and be the administrator of that software, which allowed him "unfettered access and control of AZFFA monies."

During the time period of Grandil's alleged misdeeds, he served under Republican state Superintendents of Schools John Huppenthal and Diane Douglas.

The report said the misuse of public monies could have been avoided had the department separated responsibilities for receiving, depositing and recording AZFFA monies or routinely generated audit-trail reports from the accounting software.

According to the report, department employees now serve in an advisory and assistant capacity to AZFFA and not in a management or decision-making role.

Managing the AZFFA, including the finances, shifted to its advisory board in 2017.

Grandil had a long history with FFA. He began working as a part-time FFA consultant in July 1997 until he transitioned to the executive secretary role.

But prior to that, at the age of 20, he was elected vice president the FFA's Western Region in November 1993, according to the Deseret News, owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

According to Grandil's Linkedin account, he, his brother and his father own a beef operation.

After the FFA, Grandil in 2016 assumed the executive director's role with Arizona National Livestock Show, where he remained in as of last week.

The show is the largest livestock show in the Southwest — bringing nearly 1,700 head of the nation's best cattle, horses, sheep, goats, swine and poultry for competition — and an annual Phoenix tradition since 1948, according to the organization.